UN court acquits former Kosovo leader

Source:Xinhua Published: 2012-11-29 18:40:25

Ramush Haradinaj, a former commander of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), was acquitted at a retrial at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) on Thursday.

Two other KLA commanders Idriz Balaj and Lahi Brahimaj were also acquitted. The three were charged for committing war crimes and crimes against humanity against Kosovo Serbs during conflicts in the late 1990s.

Haradinaj was first acquitted in 2008, but appeal judges ordered a partial retrial.

The court ruled on Thursday that ethnic Serbs and Albanians had been mistreated in KLA-run camps, but that Haradinaj was not found to be involved in these incidents.

The verdict came about two weeks after the ICTY acquitted two senior Croatian military officers Ante Gotovina and Mladen Markac, and ordered the pair's immediate release on Nov. 16.

Posted in: Europe

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